‘Remember how the Lord your God led you for 40 years in the wilderness. He fed you with manna, to make you understand that man does not live on bread alone but on everything that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

The manna that sustained Israel on its long journey to freedom was a prefiguration of Jesus who entrusted himself to the Church as the “living bread which has come down from heaven”.

Looking back on their shared wilderness experience, Moses had invited the people to understand the challenge represented by the manna. In the wilderness they had been consumed by hunger that had fuelled a restless grumbling against Moses. The manna had demonstrated that it is God alone who feeds our deepest hunger, and that his graciousness is a call to fidelity.

As we celebrate Christ as the living bread come down from heaven, let us be mindful of the Eucharist as a call to fidelity. Sinful humanity is vulnerable to deceptive hungers. Christ alone promised that whoever eats the bread that he shall give will live forever.

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